Getting the Lead Out: Is Your House a Ticking Pipe Bomb?

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

So, You Drinkin' Lead Water?

At least one Racket staffer is!

That's according to a new online map from the University of Minnesota (covered locally by the Star Tribune's Chloe Johnson), which is part of an effort from the Biden administration and state officials to get lead plumbing out of our drinking water system. Simply plug in your address or water supply, or navigate to your house on the interactive map, and the computer will tell you whether you have a lead or non-lead service line and whether it needs replacing. (Or, maybe it won't—Johnson reports that the status of 281,233 lines across Minnesota, roughly 19% of them, is unknown.)

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, there are 39,456 lead lines on private property in Minneapolis and another 19,490 in St. Paul. Here's some good news, though, for those of you already frantically Googling "cost to replace lead water line MN": If you do learn you have lead, you can have it replaced at no cost. All that info and more on the next steps is available here via the DOH.

The 411 on the LSB

The first concrete details regarding Minneapolis's much-ballyhooed-about labor standards board emerged on Monday, and Kyle Stokes over at Axios Twin Cities has the scoop.

So, the basics: As it's drafted (by council members Aurin Chowdhury, Aisha Chughtai, and Katie Cashman) the labor standards board would have 15 members, with five representatives for employers, employees, and "community stakeholder" groups. Twelve members would be appointed by City Council; the mayor would pick three.

"The most crucial work would happen on appointed subcommittees called 'sectoral workgroups,' that would examine specific industries, survey workers, craft regulations and report back to the full board," Stokes writes.

It's not clear which industries the board would focus on first—and that's if it passes—but Chowdhury told Axios that restaurants are "not the main character" for the LSB. (They sure have main character syndrome, though!) Instead, she says it's security guards, janitors, and condo workers who have asked for clearer labor standards.

Take a look over the legislation for yourself right here.

Mayor Emily Koski?

Tucked inside this Star Tribune story about Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's plans to run for another term is this little nugget: Ward 11 City Council Member Emily Koski says she's “strongly considering” running for mayor. Here's the full statement she gave to the Strib:

Today, all my attention is on electing Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, and DFLers up and down the ballot and turning out voters tomorrow. Here is the statement I gave to the Star Tribune earlier this evening: pic.twitter.com/uoKJtTrxKp

— Emily Koski (@emilykoskimpls) November 5, 2024

Frey campaigned with Koski in 2021, but during her first term, she broke with the mayor and sided with City Council's more progressive members on votes regarding the Roof Depot, the location of the MPD's Third Precinct, and a $15.3 million police officer incentive package. Last year, Axios's Nick Halter called her "one of his fiercest opponents," and pro-biz, pro-cop PAC All of Mpls recently scrubbed her from its website.

Some Lighthearted Election Day Reading

If you haven't voted yet, you have until 8 p.m. tonight; Jay had a great voting guide in yesterday's edition of the Flyover to help you make any decisions you may still be unsure about.

If you have voted, and you're among the people who need to read something positive to keep from spiraling as the afternoon and evening wears on, I'd recommend this one from MPR's Matt Sepic about 92-year-old Helen Burgstaler, who's been an election judge in Crow Wing County for 74 years.

Burgstaler was 18 years old in 1950 when she heard judges were needed at the schoolhouse polling place near the farm where she grew up. “I didn’t have too much to do on the farm at that time, so I thought it would be fun,” she tells Sepic, though she was too young to vote—back then, the voting age was still 21.

It must've been fun, though; she's still out there all these decades later. “Like I tell people, I don’t care how you vote, but vote," she says. "There’s a lot of people who’ve lost their lives to keep that freedom.”